Nightwing #106 review

Yo ho ho, me Heartless! I can’t remember when the ‘mystery package in a bank run by pirates’ storyline first appeared in Nightwing but it’s long enough ago that I can’t be bothered to look it up. I do know it’s nowhere near as far back in the Tom Taylor/Bruno Redondo run as the debut of Heartless, the serial killer who, well, extracts the hearts from living victims.

Both storylines are back now that the two-month Night Terrors business is over, and please God Nightwing takes Heartless off the streets. It makes him look either incompetent or a terrible protector of Blüdhaven in that he seems to have felt no sense of urgency about the situation. Maybe both.

Nightwing #106 begins with a flashback that shows us how the mystery package came into Dick’s hands. Or rather, Ric’s hands, as it was thrust upon the then amnesiac Nightwing by a man on the street. But as the man thought he was giving it to Dick Grayson, not his new personality, it seems Ric didn’t feel entitled to open the brown paper package, much to the puzzlement of his barkeep pal Bea.

Rick duly hands the enigmatic envelope over to a gentleman going by ‘Quartermaster’ and asks that the name associated with it in the bank ledger is ‘Nightwing’. That was two years ago. Today Dick, having recently found out about Quartermaster’s pirate-themed bank The Hold and the envelope, feels the time is right to tackle it.

Tom Taylor’s Nightwing truly is a patient fellow. I’m with Beast Boy, who hears about the business at Dick’s Titans Tower home after getting freakily frisky with his pet Haley, aka Bitewing.

Later, the Quartermaster meets Heartless,who turns up at The Hold intent on making an unauthorised withdrawal. Quartermaster duly withdraws something.

I’m intrigued by the business of the envelope, hopefully it’ll be more than a maguffin to kick off the action… although if said action ends with Heartless being arrested, or maybe locked in The Hold, great, he’s outlived his welcome, Dick has taken down tougher, quicker. Again, though, Nightwing has hardly been focusing on getting the serial killer off the Blüdhaven streets, he’s been spending most of his time faffing around with the Titans.

I tuned out during the ‘Ric Grayson’ extended storyline, when DC’s ridiculous embarrassment at having a character named ‘Dick’ saw drastic action taken. The reborn hero bit didn’t take with readers and now we have Dick back and as popular as ever. I’m surprised Taylor is reminding us of old Ric, but it makes sense in terms of why Nightwing would have secreted a package away with no memory of it.

This issue’s final page debuts a new costumed character with a familiar face, and Taylor happily hints at who they’ll turn out to be early in the issue. I smiled.

I also smiled at the artwork, a lot. Filling in for Bruno Redondo is Stephen Byrne, last seen on the, NPI, wonderful Wonder Twins series. His Dick, Barbara and Bitewing the dog are nicely on model, the storytelling is great, the emotions convince – it’s all-round terrific work. Byrne looks set to be around for a few months, should Redondo leave the book he’d be a great replacement. Regular letterer Wes Abbott and colour artist Adriano Lucas also bring their talents the pages. I hope they stick around for the duration

Hey, there’s a back-up! If you’ve been missing the Batgirls series co-written by Michael W Conrad, here’s the first of a Batgirls three-parter written by Michael W Conrad. Well, two Batgirls, anyway, Barbara isn’t around. But we do get Dick looking sexy in a silky apron as he teaches Cassandra Cain to make pancakes and a mysterious guy named Hatch who has a great car, courtesy of artist Serg Acuña, who does some terrific cartooning. Conrad does give us some fun new (well, I assume they’re new, the art on Batgirls stopped me reading it) bad guys.

Mind, these guys are pretty darn smooth for ‘bears’.

Lucas and Abbott are back to lend their talents to proceedings.

If you don’t mind another back-up strip no one asked for bumping up the price of your comic, and can accept that Ric Grayson, in the main strip, can spot he’s being followed after about a block, while in the back-up Dick Grayson is oblivious for four days, this is the book for you.

Well, someone blew it with the cover. Just think of the sales bump a big starburst containing ‘RIC GRAYSON IS BACK!’ would’ve given the book… Still, Redondo’s image is a decent one, though it looks like it’s intended more for a collection of the new storyline, entitled The Crew of the Crossed, than this particular issue.

All in all, this is a solid issue, and I’m keen to see what comes next. How about you?